Manny Otiko
June 2014
R & B songstress Miki Howard is returning to the airwaves with a new live album, called I Choose to be Happy, which will drop in June.
In a telephone interview, Miki said she had been working on the album for a year and a half. She said the album encompases her entire career from 1976.
The new album features a single called Panther, which is a collaboration with the rapper Too Short. It also features some Marvin Gaye tributes. Panther also features a video, which Howard said was “weird” making, because she hadn’t done one in years.
This is Miki’s first new music since Private Collection, in 2008. When asked why she had been gone so long, Miki replied that she had been spending time with her family, which includes three children and four grandchildren. “I had to get myself together,” Miki said. Her time off also gave her the inspiration for the new album.
Miki has recently hit the headlines when a story broke that her son Brandon was allegedly fathered by Michael Jackson. Brandon is also featured on the new album.
“I can’t really talk about that,” said Miki. “They (the Jacksons) are fine people and I don’t have anything bad to say about them.” Miki insisted that her family is not suing anyone, and she was not “Billie Jean.”
MIki said the music industry has changed over the years. She said,”the media is the art form now.” Artists have to know how to manipulate the media to get their music out there.
It was not like this before. “The music took precedent, but it’s not that way now,“ Miki said.
However, Miki said the web has allowed artists to reach a bigger audience.”You are able to reach many more people via the Internet,” she said.
